Report calls for closure of Harrow, Western Secondary Schools

Supporters of Harrow and Western high schools reacted with a mix of anger, disappointment and resolve at news Friday that the Greater Essex County District School Board is proposing to close the two under-populated schools.

Dave Waddell, Windsor Star

Updated: September 11, 2015

Sheri Dzudovich is photographed outside of Harrow District High School in Harrow on Friday, September 11, 2015. The school is facing possible closure. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

Supporters of Harrow and Western high schools reacted with a mix of anger, disappointment and resolve at news Friday that the Greater Essex County District School Board is proposing to close the two under-populated schools.

Harrow District High School is seen on September 11, 2015. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

Harrow high school, which shares space with Grade 7s and 8s, and Western are hovering around 50 per cent of capacity at the secondary school level.

“It’ll have a devastating effect on the Harrow community,” said Essex town councillor Sherry Bondy, a graduate of the school who still lives in Harrow.

“It’ll be like a funeral in Harrow.”

The board released its Director’s Report Friday that also calls for the building of a new JK to Grade 12 school in Kingsville to house Kingsville secondary school and Jack Miner and Kingsville elementary schools.

A new high school, with about 800 spaces, is also proposed to replace General Amherst.

Western Secondary School on County Road 8, September 11, 2015. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

The report will be presented to the board of trustees at Tuesday’s board meeting with a final vote scheduled for Oct. 13.

If approved, the board will close the two high schools at the end of June.

Sheri Dzudovich, a member of the Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) studying the schools’ futures, admitted she wasn’t surprised by the announcement.

The PARC handed in its report, which emphasized avoiding school closures, to trustees this past June.

“It’s been on the chopping block for a long time,’ said Dzudovich, who has two children at the Harrow high school site.

“This is extremely disheartening, especially given the many viable solutions presented.”

The board’s plans also call for Harrow high school students to go to Kingsville while the Grades 7s and 8s will be returned to Harrow Public Elementary School.

Sheri Dzudovich is photographed outside of Harrow District High School in Harrow on Friday, September 11, 2015. The school is facing possible closure. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

Western’s students taking Locally Developed courses will attend their home schools based on their current residential boundaries.

Those taking Adaptive Basic programming will attend the closest school offering the specialized programming. That programming will be added to Belle River, General Amherst and Kingsville high schools.

Those three schools also have some tech facilities that can offer some of the programming students got at Western.

“We’re looking at eliminating approximately 1,100 empty spaces because of the closure of the two buildings,” said Todd Awender, the Superintendent of Education overseeing the PARC process.

“We’ll also fill Harrow elementary school close to 100 per cent capacity. If we get the two new builds out of this, which will be right-sized schools, we’re looking at eliminating 1,300 empty spaces overall.”

The board currently has 6,100 empty spaces in under-utilized schools which cost $5.7-million to maintain last year.

Awender said without the elimination of excess capacity, the board can’t afford to offer the programming to students it wants nor can it be financially sustainable.

“The Ministry (of Education) has made it clear it won’t fund new schools without addressing excess capacity,” Awender said.

“These consolidations eliminate spaces and allow us to build the strongest business cases for the new builds.”

With one of the oldest collections of buildings in the province, the board also faces hefty renewal costs at the schools in the study.

Currently the schools require over $40-million worth of repairs, but that figure more than doubles over the next 10 years.

Awender added the board expects transportation costs to be relatively unaffected by the changes.

However, Dzudovich and Bondy both emphasized the battle to save the schools is far from over.

Trustees can defer action, reject or accept the reports or come up with their own plan.

“We won’t go down without a fight,” Bondy said.

“Town council has been talking already in preparation for this. We’ll meet with the PARC and pressure trustees and our local MPP Taras Natyshak.

“We want to work with the board, but we don’t feel we’ve been given that chance.”

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